Two girls and a guy are driving through the Australian outback, looking to visit a massive crater left by one of the biggest meteor strikes ever. After hanging around the big hole in the rainy desert, they come back to their car to find that it won't start. Thankfully, a helpful Aussie outdoorsman just so happens to be rolling through and offers to tow them back to his dwelling where he'll fix up their car. They chill with him for a little bit before falling asleep and waking up all bound and beaten in the clutches of the perverse madman...
Obviously, John Jarratt is fucking awesome as the burly, tourist-killing psychopath, Mick. Unfortunately, he feels underused here. Hell, the whole "horror" element feels underused in "Wolf Creek". It's just way too basic and I can't help but feel as though I only saw a small portion of a film, rather than a full feature. We've got an hour-long "build up" with the trio of dull soon-to-be victims before transitioning into the CHAOS in the blink of an eye! The tension hardly seems like it had a chance to register with the viewer before you're suddenly launched right into Mick roughing these bitches up. I just got the sense that an 'act' was missing from "Wolf Creek" - like a real ending, which was abrupt and unsatisfying here. And the whole "based on a true story" thing is a bit of a stretch. Apparently the film IS based LOOSELY on Aussie serial killer Ivan Milat (aka. The Backpacker Killer). Again, loosely based!
Like I said, Jarratt is really good and incredibly threatening and vicious as the killer here, but there just wasn't enough of him. All n' all, "Wolf Creek" is nothing special when it comes to backwoods horror. In fact, it's downright forgettable and FAR from "shocking" or "extreme", which was all I heard when this thing hit the cinemas some years back. The look of it is nice and the killer is cool, but it just wasn't enough for me. Sorry.
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